Why the Anti-Vaccine Movement Is Back in the Spotlight

Kristin Cavallari joined Jenny McCarthy's anti-vaccine crusade, and it's back in the news.

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Kristin Cavallari rose to fame on MTV's Laguna Beach and The Hills, which then catapulted her into a stint on Dancing With the Stars and a fashion line. Now, Cavallari is being positioned as a lifestyle expert on a new E! show, The Fabulist. While making the rounds to promote her new show, Kristin happened to let it slip that she decided not to vaccinate her children.

"We didn't vaccinate. I read too many books about autism and there's studies… Now, one in 88 boys is autistic and that's a scary statistic," Cavallari said during an interview with Fox News. Her comments flew around the Internet so quickly that Fox brought her back for further comment. "Listen, to each their own. I understand both sides of it. I've ready too many books about autism and there's some scary statistics out there. It's our personal choice, and, you know, if you're really concerned about your kid get them vaccinated," Kristin said.

Cavallari also took to Twitter to defend her stance, posted links to blog posts that help form her opinion. After sharing her reading material, Kristin tweeted that she's done discussing the matter. But as fellow anti-vaccine advocate Jenny McCarthy knows, it's never over when it comes to Twitter.

McCarthy recently took to the social network in an attempt to do some crowd-sourcing on another topic.

What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate? Reply using #JennyAsks

McCarthy has been facing similar backlash for her views about vaccination for years, and a recent measles outbreak has brought all anti-vaxx parents back into the spotlight. Cavallari's name will now come up as well when vaccine-related outbreaks occur. Still, we have to think that as celebs on a soapbox, they've signed up for it. With 140-character social media posts as the reigning way of getting info out there for both pro- and anti-vaccinators, the real loser in this debate are the children of mis- and under-informed parents, who take these quickly dashed-off updates as the whole truth.